Leslie's Blog

“Balsam & Balls”

Every Christmas Leslie creates an original découpage plate design. These plates feature an original painting carefully cut by hand, applied to a glass plate and finished with hand marbled paper and sealers. Use for decoration or for serving. Hand washing is recommended. Order plates by emailing us at leslie@leslielinsley.com

My new book, “Salvage Style” has just been released by Sterling Publishing.. The subject is decorating with recycled and reclaimed materials. For the second time I partnered with Country Living Magazine. The first book with Country Living was Aged To Perfect. Salvage Style is filled with photographs and interviews with homeowners all over the country who are passionate about recycling and repurposing material and objects to infuse their homes with character. Read More

My New Year’s resolution is to de-clutter my house, a little at a time. The idea was that with just a few minutes devotion to this task, by year’s end my house would be an organizational thing of beauty. All possessions and things that had lived past their prime will have been replaced. Perhaps many of you want to start the year with a clean slate that involves getting rid of stuff. I find no joy in this endeavor, even though current magazines tell us otherwise.

Custom designed 10-inch wedding invitation plate created from the original invitation and designed with cutout prints to reflect the flowers from your wedding.This plate was designed for a Nantucket couple getting married in Key West, FL. The flowers were part of the invitation and remind me of old-fashioned wallpaper. See more designs below. Call for custom order info. 508-221-5564 or email leslie@leslielinsley.com

I love designing wedding invitation plates. Most of them are 10-inches square, but lately I’ve been expanding to platters. Most are 16×20 inches because the invitations are getting larger and there are so many activities with printed programs included. Also, more and more, couples are creating little booklets of events, names of everyone in the wedding party as well as cute maps, “save the date” cards, and lots of other printed material. And then there’s the shower invitation that I usually put on the back.Read More

Let’s face it, there isn’t a whole lot of time left – maybe a few hours to wrap up your gifts. I am a great believer in recycling when possible. I take great pains to neatly fold the wrapping paper I’ve carefully removed from holiday packages and re-roll ribbon for another use. I cut Christmas cards into package tags and punch holes in one corner, then put them into a greeting card-size box to be used next year. I don’t think I can remember when I last bought holiday gift tags. The ones that aren’t specifically holiday-ish I save for birthday presents. It isn’t frugality that provokes these actions,Read More

This week has been a busy one for everyone. It seemed like we had lots of time to get decorated and ready for Christmas and suddenly we don’t. Or at least that’s the way it seems. The Festival of Wreaths was a big success. Always a good kick off to the season. Then we had Stroll Weekend and now a round of holiday events. Every year I attend the party at The Homestead – always joyful. Music by the ShepCats – makes the party quite lively. What I like most about this yearly party is that it reminds us of how our community reaches out to all generations and doesn’t forget the elderly.Read More